Back to Nottoway

9-9-13

Had a delightful time at Nottoway this morning. I worked for about 90 minutes. Much of the time was spent admiring and harvesting with a dash of weeding and tying stuff up. Basket full of tomatoes! Right now am roasting some for a Roasted Tomato Caprese salad from the Barefoot Contessa book (Back to Basics 90).

Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad Recipe

• Halve and seed a dozen Roma tomatoes
• Sprinkle Tomatoes  with some minced garlic, sugar, salt, olive oil and Balsamic vinegar and roast cut side up for two hours at 275 degrees.
• When cooled- put together alternately with mozzarella , sprinkle with fresh basil and olive oil.

Hard to Believe !

Helped the nice little Korean lady who lugging this big  melon similar to the one growing in my garden. I carried it to her car and asked her what it was and how it is used. She said SOUP. It weighed a ton.

 The first of the Heirloom Tomatoes.

 

 

 

6 miler: personal best!

September 7, 2013
Ocean City, New Jersey

Beach @23rd St & Boardwalk

Yesterday, Lauren and I went for a bike ride on the boardwalk. I rode the blue bike from Vienna. Chris and Lauren adjusted the seat so it was more comfortable but the handlebars are too low. However, when we returned to Atlantic Avenue, we figured out that the ride to 28th Street was about 6 miles. Now, I admit there was a certain amount of whining and stopping to rest; my fanny and my elbows hurt. If I raise the handlebars I won't have to lean over and put so much weight on my elbows. The handlebars are low so my arms are fully extended when I ride. 

My bike

Today, we did the same ride but I borrowed Bec's coaster bike. What a difference; no stopping or whining and did the entire Boardwalk with pleasure.

Jersey Shore

Roxy under a cloud

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

     Arrived in Ocean City yesterday afternoon. The drive wasn't too bad, although I dislike the 95 corridor because of the crazy drivers.

Fun to see Lauren and Frank. The latest trauma on E Atlantic is that Roxy is having "potty issues" in the basement. Consequently, she is barred from the basement and second floor unless accompanied by an adult. There are lots of baby gates- they are really animal gates because there are "cat" doors that will allow Ray to move freely thru out the house. Had a delicious dinner and nice walk on the boardwalk down as far as 12th street.

This morning, Roxy and I took a short walk; when we returned I heard some breaking news. As Chris was watching TV in the basement last night, he heard a suspicious sound (like an animal going potty on a blue tarp) and saw the perp standing on the blue tarp in mid-stream.

Yes, Ray was caught in the act! Roxy was not the culprit, Ray was the source of the unauthorized leaking. Ray, of course, acted innocent and nonchalantly tried to brush the issue aside.  However, the evidence was right there. Truth revealed and Justice prevailed. 

vindicated

guilty


 





a friend visits my garden

August 29, 2013

Today, my neighbor joined me in the Nottoway garden. Libby helped me harvest tomatoes, green beans,  and the last of the potatoes. She and I have similar ideas about harvesting techniques--she instinctively understood the importance of taste testing as one picks. This afternoon, Libby goes to her new school to meet her first grade teacher; she is thinking of giving him a potato and maybe a tomato. I told her that Mr. Armstrong will probably always remember the day that he got a potato from one of his new students.   

While there, Ginny stopped by and we had a chance to catch up. I confessed to eating some of her yellow tomatoes and green beans.

On the way back to Libby's house, we stopped by my house and she had a chance to play with Anne Marie's kitty. All in all, it was a good morning

Ms. Libby's sneaker gives some scale to the big guy on 8-29-13

all is revealed....







The mystery melon is turning ORANGE



Today, I spent a few hours at Nottoway; the mystery melon is getting larger and larger and turning orange. I think it is growing into a giant pumpkin. Everything looks fairly good-the eggplant is thriving, the tomatoes are fine, harvested several pounds of small tomatoes.

 

 

 

 Bev playing with a ping pong ball.

 

 

Beautiful tomatoes-San Marzano

 

Eggplants Palooza !

 

On Saturday, I made a quick run to the Nottoway garden since it had been a few days since I had been over. Harvested a lot of tomatoes and THREE eggplants. The mystery melon is growing and turning color. It must be a pumpkin.

While there, I saw a lady with a clip board inspecting the plots....hope we pass.

Death in the Garden

August 20, 2013

Non-dead chipmunk tomatoes

I don't know how the death occurred but I found a corpse in my garden. The striped body caught my eye as I was admiring my melon/tomato patch and really startled me. My first reaction was "danger, poisonous snake stripes"  but I realized quickly that it was one  dead chipmunk.  The good sized chippy was face down and spread eagled nestled in the base of a tomato plant. Out of respect for the dead, I do not include a picture.   Plus, I did not want to get close enough to the dead animal to take a picture.

Don't know what to do with disposal of the body because everything I can think of requires me to get close to the dead chipmunk. Because of the location of the body, disposal requires some adroit movements with a shovel or other big implement that could damage the tomato plants just as the tomatoes are looking close to eating; asking Ed to dispose of the body would probably make both of us  unhappy. Me, because the likelihood of damage, Ed because he is doing me a favor and the likelihood that I will yell at him.
 I did mention the issue of the dead chipmunk to Ed and suggested that he could help me out but he was non-responsive.

Where are the carrion eaters when one has carrion?

 

Tomatoes Galore

August 18, 2013




bean plant 8-17-13

 

Returned from Indiana, unpacked the car and headed for Nottoway. Watered and weeded and picked a ton of tomatoes. Took some pictures of the growing sprouted beans, glossy eggplant and the mystery melon. The eggplants start off as a sturdy light pink flower.

eggplant flower



 

Tom's departure

On Tuesday night, Frank, Monica and Colleen joined Tom, Ed and myself for a farewell dinner at La Dolce Vita in Fairfax. It was fun seeing everyone although sad to have to watch Tom and Colleen say goodbye.  In retrospect, it would have been better to have scheduled the dinner for Monday night. Live and learn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell dinner at La Dolce Vita

The next morning, we left bright and early at 7am for Indiana and rolled into Bloomington about 6:30 pm. We had few stops only for gas and lunch. The drive wasn't too bad except for the PA turnpike. What a horrible road. We did run into some rush hour traffic as we approached Indianapolis. Bloomington is a cute town. We washed up and headed into town for dinner. There is a town square with lots of restaurants surrounding the courthouse. We ate at Grazie on their outside patio in the front of the restaurant. The wild mushroom ravioli was excellent.  

 

After dinner, we walked around a little but it felt cold and we didn't go very far.  The downtown is a few blocks from campus. We estimated that the downtown is about 5 blocks by 5 blocks and has lots of little shops and restaurants.
The campus is beautiful- most of the buildings are Indiana limestone and there are beautiful wooded areas, streams  and brick paths thru out campus. Lots of begonias and brightly colored flowers all over campus.

Tom's new apartment- living room



On Thursday, we were up and out early to pick up a Budget truck and drive to pick up Tom's "stuff" in Columbus, IN where the U-pack depot is located. We were back in Bloomington by 11am and had a late 2nd breakfast or early lunch at the Runcible Spoon as we waited for the rental office to open at noon. We unloaded the truck and the Subaru with a minimum of hassle. The apartment is in the middle of the first floor which required some walking but no stairs.

After getting everything unloaded, Tom and Ed took the truck back to Budget as I put stuff away in the bathroom and kitchen. I meandered over to the Kroger and picked up a few things. By the time Ed and Tom returned, we all decided to call it quits and for a while. After a nap and some rest time, we picked up Tom at the apartment and went to an middle Eastern restaurant  (Turkish?)  and had a delicious dinner in an outside patio that was very inviting- lots of vines and white lights draped over arbors. After a quick trip to a Bed Bath and Beyond for some "stuff", we dropped Tom off at his apartment. 

Friday morning, Ed and I packed up our gear and went over to Tom's place and helped move some recycling stuff and were finished by 11 am. We left for home  having decided to drive until we stopped. We ended up in Washington PA. Good to be home on Saturday.   

 

Bridge over a little creek in the middle of campus

Tom in the middle of campus

 

 

Some of the flowers on IU's campus August 2013 

 

 

 

Pizza





homemade pizza with homegrown tomatoes



Pizza dough from Whole Foods + Goat and Parmesan Cheese+ freshly picked tomatoes and basil sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt and freshly ground pepper = it was delicious. 

 

 

 

Monday August 12th

Today's harvest: an onion, tomatoes, and green beans .

After dropping Ed off at the Metro this morning, I made a visit to my wonderful garden at Nottoway. I do love being there.

I gathered up some tomatoes and watered the transplanted coneflowers, Stella d'oro lilies, sweet potato slips, and yellow and red peppers as well as the sprouted green bean seedlings and the newly sown lettuce (red sails), carrot seeds and green beans seeds that I planted on Saturday. Of course, I had to  admire the girth of the HUGE mystery melon. I think Ginny may be right about it being a pumpkin. Next time, I'll take a picture of it.

Flowers from home garden: better to pick them than have the deer eat them. there are phlox, black eyed Susan, and pink coneflowers. I love having flowers in the house.

August 3rd

Eggplant, one of Ginny's heirloom tomatoes, some garlic and the last of the onionsl

Stopped by the garden on the way home from brunch at the Johnson's house. The gladiolas, Stella d'oro day lilies  and  the coneflowers that I transplanted looked pretty limp. I had not watered because I was sure rain was on its way. However, no rain; Ed and I gathered some tomatoes and admired the melons, which seems to grow in girth every time I see them, even if its only a five minute from one glance to the next. The eggplants look marvelous but I did not have a knife to cut the stem, which is so thick that I am afraid to try to snap it and accidently uproot the entire plant.

Last night we had a good rain and I am eager to see if the cool weather and the rain have revived the transplants. Hope so.

Today I focused on my backyard and weeded for several hours. Collected several large bags/containers of debris. It was pretty weedy out there. I tried to tie up the volunteer tomato plants behind the azalea  bushes but ended up just uprooting them. I hope that removing the debris will reduce the number of mosquitoes. It looks a lot better without all those pesky violets. Tomorrow, I'd like to move some hostas and those green snake plant look-alike plants. They have flourished in the shady backyard. Unfortunately, the holly bush by the fence is getting so big that the hosta and the green spikey plants are getting buried.   I trimmed up the holly but need to move about 6 plants while the weather is still cool. Rain on the horizon on Tuesday.

I want to visit the Nottoway garden tomorrow and continue to clean up the beds, harvest the tomatoes and the eggplant, and plant some more seeds in addition to the radish and green beans. However, Anne Marie is coming up for a visit and I need to get the Subi from the repair shop and get to DMV to have Corolla  title lien released since it needs to be in AMDW's name.

Next week, I really need to buy some mulch and get some more cardboard to freshen up the garden paths.  

August 2, 2013

Italian Almond Tart : recipe from Williams Sonoma

The best laid plans often go astray. Meant to go to the Nottoway garden but ran out of time. However made a delicious Italian Almond Tart. Recipe is as follows:

pie crust


     Mix 1 1/2 cups of flour with 1/2  cup of butter  and 1/4 cup of sugar & 1/4 tsp salt   

     combine until looks like "rough cornmeal"
     add a mixture of 1 egg yolk . 1/2 TBSP of Vanilla, and 2 TBPS icy cold water -
     chill 30 minutes and roll out to 9 inch tart pan.
     Bake with pie weights about 20 minutes until not "wet".
Filling: With electric mixer
      - cream 1/2  cup butter
         add can of almond paste mix until smooth.
         add 1/3 cup of sugar  and two eggs- 1 at a time.
         Stir in 1/3 cup of flour.
 Put it together
     Spread 1/3 cup of raspberry jam in bottom of baked pie shell,
     add butter mixture
     sprinkle with sliced almonds.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.

We like it for dessert or for a breakfast sweet.

August 1, 2013

Potatoes harvested this morning

The original potatoes that these potatoes grew from had started to sprout this spring. Rather than throwing them into the compost heap, I planted them at Nottoway. This is the second year in a row I have managed to salvage potatoes from death row.

  It is lots of fun digging up potatoes; as Anne Marie said its like an Easter egg hunt with potatoes. When I dig up potatoes, I always feel as if there are lots of little potatoes lurking under ground that I missed. I think I need to "Hill" the potatoes so that they are easier to find. Next year!

I spent about two hours at Nottoway this morning. I cleaned up some of the beds by harvesting the potatoes and onions.

 After cleaning up some of the beds, I transplanted some Stella D'Oro lilies from home to the outside corner of the  Nottoway garden. At home, as soon as the Stella D'Oros bloom, the deer chow down on the flowers. Am tired of feeding the deer. I also transplanted some coneflowers from home. The walk I took with Anne Marie on Tuesday made me feel like a "Martha" -all work and no fun- because I realized I didn't have one flowering plant in the garden. So today, I added some plants that should provide some pink and yellow to the plot. I put them on the outside perimeter so people could enjoy them.

I also planted some Kentucky Wonder green beans in the outside beds so they could use the fence and the sunflowers to climb. I also planted some red Giant radishes in three rows in the large bed on the left. They should be ready in thirty days so I guess I'll plant some more next Thursday, and the following Thursday etc so that I'll have radishes ready to harvest for the month of September. Also planted a  few giant sunflower seeds along the fence line. The package said it  flowers in 90 days which would be the end of  October. Hopefully, these seeds will be productive- I'd like to harvest the seeds for the birds this winter. The sunflowers I planted in the spring were all decapitated. A little mysterious that only one from the spring  actually set seeds.



July 30, 2013

Grape tomatoes

Anne Marie and I visited the garden today and harvested some onions and garlic with a few tomatoes and potatoes thrown in for good measure. We then toured Nottoway and one of the other "garden plotters" gave her a beautiful heavy butternut squash. We enjoyed the ramble but it was a bit buggy so we cut the walk short in order to have time  for a nap before returning to Richmond. It was wonderful to have her visiting us. Young Beverly remains full of beans and runs around the house as if possessed or being chased by an evil fantasy animal. 

forest of eggplants

Used some of the previously harvest potatoes for a delicious roasted potato, fennel, green bean and asparagus dish for last night's feast. The grated parmesan on the roasted veg made  it taste absolutely yummy. We had corn salad with the corn from the Eastern Shore that the Johnsons brought over on Sunday, my favorite broccoli salad, the Silver Palate's summer tomatoes and Pasta dish along with grilled flank steak and finished off with an apple tart made with puff pastry and fresh whipped cream.
The weather was so mild that we ate outside and had a marvelous time with Anne Marie, Tom and Colleen, Alex from Melbourne, and Lindsay. I really enjoyed making the meal and having everyone here. Missed Carly but we used her stand in - Lindsay.
nne Marie used the little Canon camera for the following Veggie Glamour shots. She is right, the closer one gets to the veg, the better they look.



potatoes



Eggplant





mystery melon: a volunteer

 

Recipes

Roasted Vegetables "Back to Basics" page 171 Garten

Heat oven 425 degrees,

toss  the following in  1/3 cup olive oil with kosher salt and fresh black pepper

1 pound of small potatoes cut in half or wedges

2 small fennel bulbs  cut into 6 wedges

and roast for 25 to 30 minutes until potatoes are tender, toss once while cooking

toss in  1 pound of green beans and a bunch small green asparagus cut in 3 inch pieces and roast another 10 to 15 minutes until green veg are tender. sprinkle on 1/4 cup of grated parmesan and roast another minute or two until melted. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

Fresh Corn Salad "Back to Basics" page 160 Garten

In a large pot of boiling water add 5 ears of shucked corn and cook for three minutes. Add corn to an ice cold water bath to stop the cooking.  When cooled, cut kennels and toss with 1/2 cup of finely chopped red onion, 3 tablespoons (each) of cider vinegar and olive oil, add salt and fresh pepper. and toss. right before serving add 1/2 cup of freshly chopped basil.

Broccoli Salad- from Susan Lubbers

Combine chopped broccoli (chop it fairly finely- but not minced) with golden raisins and toasted pine nuts. For dressing combine equal amounts of plain yogurt and mayo and a little sugar and salt and pepper. The trick is to coat the broccoli not smother it with the dressing so the amount of broccoli one uses dictates the amount of dressing. I usually mix half the dressing I make and then add more in increments so its not too "wet". Chill for a few hours.

Silver Palate Summer Tomato Pasta

   

 





July 27, 2013

 



 Picked on Friday.  

first fruits 2013

July 26, 2013

Before visiting the garden, Ginny and I went to Unity in Fairfax to see a demonstration of mandala making. There are several monks from Tibet building a sand mandala in the sanctuary.   Very interesting. The colors are incredibly bright almost garish especially green. I enjoyed reading some of the Dalai Lama sayings. One of them " The Paradox of Our Age" is as follows:

" The Paradox of Our Age"

 

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

more conveniences, but less time:

We have more degrees, but less sense;

more knowledge, but less judgment;

more experts, but more problems;

more medicines, but less healthiness;

We've been all the way  to the moon and back,

but have trouble crossing the street to meet

the new neighbor.

We built more computers to hold more

information to produce more copies than ever,

but have less communication;

We have become long on quantity,

but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods

but slow digestion;

Tall man but short character;

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It's a time when there is much in the window,

but nothing in the room.

 

 

The Nottoway garden doesn't look like much but contains past work and future expectations. Perhaps that is what draws me back. I do love working in the garden.  

  

partially completed mandala

pots of colored sand

metal tubes; monks scoop up sand and then rub a metal file over the tube to place the sand on the mandala

Tuesday July17, 2013

It has been some time since I posted to the Nottoway blog. Sadly this reflects the amount of time I have devoted to the garden in 2013.
Last Fall, when I cleaned up the garden I planted a bunch of "stuff" to winter over; mostly  onions but also some garlic. While I have enjoyed the onion, I feel a little bad  because many of them were pulled before their time. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the onion caper, I put in 120 onions sets  that I bought from Southern States in Manassas. Way too many onion sets for a plot 20 by 15 feet. Three different varieties and all delicious. I still have about 40 onions left in the garden after my harvest yesterday. Interestingly enough, the onions stalks are huge in relation to the size of the onion--- the onions are about four feet tall  but with a diameter smaller than the size of my fist!
After dropping Ed off at the Metro at 7:30 am yesterday, I went directly to Nottoway and worked until 10:45.It was HOT.
 I cleaned up the beds- 3 cubic feet plus of weeds and onion and potato debris; pulled about a dozen onions and several pounds of red potatoes as well as a few yellow potatoes. I tied up the tomatoes and tried to reorient the volunteer squash plant that surrounds the bed to the right of the walkway from the gate door. It is unbelievably big and dramatic.
At least now the walkways are clear. Poor Ginny, her side of the garden looks well tended. I have not been a very good gardening buddy this year.  The tomatoes, and eggplants  growing at Nottoway are from seedlings I purchased in Ocean City NJ over Memorial Day holiday. The New Jersey seedlings and the potatoes which sprouted in my laundry room as well as a few sunflowers are the only new things I put into the garden this year. Part of the lack of effort results from being busy with two weddings this spring Jenni Ryan and Pat Jenkins as well as the Cap to Cap  weekend bike ride in Richmond with the entire family...Ed rode 50 miles while Tom did the 100 mile one. Between the ride, the weddings, Carly's graduation, helping her get ready for China, the trip to OC NJ and two weeks in Ireland, I have not had the  time to work in the garden like I did last year. Also, since our neighbors, the Crotty's have taken down a number of large trees, our back yard now sunny enough for plantings. I have put in peppers, beans and tomatoes on Verdict Dr. The deer have really enjoyed eating them so I'll not do that again next year.   
Right now I am in White Plains for a week but when I get back I am going to harvest the balance of the large bed and plant string beans. I plan to ask Ginny if I can cut some bamboo poles from her backyard and use them as a support. Last year, I used the metal wire plant supports for the beans and was happy with them but the area was smaller. Also, this year I have used the metal wire supports for the tomatoes.  Either I have to buy more metal supports or get some bamboo ones.
Next week I promise myself to take some photos for the blog.